WASHINGTON, DC —
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Tuesday issued the following statement to KETK on the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade:

Today marks the dark anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that overturned a Texas law that prohibited abortion on demand. Since that 1973 ruling, more than 55 million lives have been lost to abortion.

Defending life, at its core, includes protecting both the unborn child and his or her mother from an irreversible injustice.

We cannot know how many inventors, musicians, scientists, athletes, physicians, and entrepreneurs were never allowed to breathe their first breath of life. We cannot know the medical cures, artistic masterpieces, thriving businesses, and life-transforming charities that never came into existence.

Today we mourn those 55 million souls.

I have been honored to defend the dignity of human life, helping successfully defend the federal Partial Birth Abortion Act, state parental notification laws, and Texas’s law prohibiting state funds for groups that provide abortions.

No right is more precious and fundamental than the right to life, and any just society should protect that right at every stage, from conception to natural death.